Check out Jessica Purdy’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Purdy.

Jessica, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born in Springfield, MA and lived in various towns in Massachusetts throughout my childhood. Growing up the daughter of a Methodist minister and an Art teacher, I was one of four children. My parents adopted my two brothers (one brother is Vietnamese and the other African American). My family is a major part of my identity as a poet and artist. My father studied Poetry in college and his sermons introduced me to metaphor. My mother’s art was always something I wanted to emulate.

In college at UNH I double majored in English and Studio Art, studying with Charles Simic and Mekeel McBride for poetry and with Craig Hood and Grant Drumheller for Art. At the time I was torn between the two subjects and longed to combine them in some way. Later I would go on to graduate school at Emerson College for my MFA in Creative Writing.

Since then I have been involved in Art and Poetry in many different ways. As a participant in the Portsmouth Poet Laureate projects over the years, community involvement has become an integral part of living in Seacoast New Hampshire. Art galleries too, have been wonderful ways of becoming involved. Susan Schwake, of artstream studios coordinated an ekphrastic show a few years back. I was happy to collaborate with her by writing poems based upon her artwork, and she, in turn, made artwork based upon my poems.

One of the more interesting collaborations I worked on was “The Telephone Game”, an online interactive exhibit culminating in a show in New York City. I wrote a poem based upon an original piece of music. One message began the game, which passed artwork from person to person until the original message became the hidden thread connecting all the works of art from poetry, to painting and sculpture, to film and music.

In upcoming exhibits, I will be showing my poems as collaborations with artists. One is at the Wickford Art Association in North Kingstown, RI where an as yet unidentified artist will be responding to one of my poems. I have participated in this collaborative show in years past as well. The other exhibit will begin with a reading/celebration at the Newmarket Millspace in Newmarket, NH where my poem in response to artwork by Carand Burnet will be showcased along with other participants’ poems.

I also host poetry writing retreats on Cape Cod every year. We spend a weekend discussing aspects of poetry, and use the time for writing and reflection. It’s one of my favorite things in life to study, read, and write with others.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I write poetry. I have a chapbook out with Finishing Line Press called “Learning the Names” which features my own artwork on the cover. I also have a more recent book of poems called “STARLAND” which came out in October 2017 with Nixes Mate Books, a publisher out of Allston, MA. They will publish my next book in November 2018 entitled “Sleep in a Strange House”.

With my background in art, many of my poems are ekphrastic and offer my perspective on life through the lens of looking at art. I use dreams as a form of ekphrasis as well. Since my dreams are visual, I can use them like I would use artwork in order to find meaning and metaphor, and as a sort of “mental mirror” if you will.

I have some projects in mind for the future, one of them is a book of poems based upon Frances Glessner Lee’s “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death”. In her miniatures from the 1940s, she depicts death scenes in order to help police use their observation skills. She is considered the early creator of forensic science. Another project is a portrait of poet’s project where I want to paint contemporary poets who are actively publishing today. Whether this happens or not remains to be seen.

I hope people find commonality in the imagery of my poems. I feel that we are more alike than we are different, and poetry is one way to communicate universal themes most people will recognize, however strange they may be, and to make associations with their own observations of their lives.

Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
One of the biggest challenges facing artists would be the lack of financial support from the public and other institutions. One sees this in the complaints of those artists who are asked to do work for the “exposure”. In other words, for no money. Though this is irksome to most artists and writers, I know that we don’t do it for the money. Art and writing are a calling just like any other profession. Most of us have to augment our art with teaching jobs. I work as an adjunct teaching college poetry workshops, which I love doing. I feel that if we have a gift, that we should share it by teaching it to others. The more we can pass on through education, the more the art will last into the future and continue to enrich the lives of others.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My books are available for purchase online and at Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, NH.

Learning the Names
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/learning-the-names-by-jessica-purdy/

STARLAND
http://nixesmate.pub/jessica-purdy-starland/

I have published poems with many different journals online and in print journals and anthologies. Here is a list of some of them:

The Telephone Game:
http://telephone.satellitecollective.org/works/88

isacoustic
https://isacoustic.com/2018/03/19/person-jessica-purdy-one-poem/

Nixes Mate Review:
http://nixesmate.pub/the-jar-with-the-dry-rim/
http://nixesmate.pub/accident/

Silver Birch Press
https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2016/07/17/quench-poem-by-jessica-purdy-beach-and-pool-memories-poetry-and-prose-series/

The Light Ekphrastic
https://thelightekphrastic.com/august-2017-issue-31/poussin-purdy-august-2017/

The Ekphrastic Review
http://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/arca-de-noe-by-jessica-purdy

The Wild Word
https://thewildword.com/poetry-jessica-purdy-2/

Survision Magazine
http://survisionmagazine.com/Issue2/jessicapurdy.htm

Anthologies
Nancy Drew Anthology
https://www.amazon.com/Nancy-Drew-Anthology-Everybodys-Anthologies/dp/0997797215

isacoustic volume third
http://www.lulu.com/shop/barton-smock/isacoustic-volume-third/paperback/product-23600773.html

Column in The Wild Word
https://thewildword.com/jessica-purdy-dream-meteor/

Upcoming exhibits and readings:

Tiny Writes
5:00PM, Friday, September 14th 2018
55 Main Street
Newmarket, NH
South Entry, River Level
http://www.carandburnet.com/tiny-writes/

The Wickford Art Association
Poetry and Art
6:30PM, September 14th, and running through October 14th 2018
36 Beach Street
North Kingstown, RI
wickfordart.org

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jessicapurdy.com
• Email: schlimsmom@yahoo.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessica.purdy.735

Image Credit:
Jessica Purdy, artist, “Self Portrait at 6”
Grace Shelley Sullivan, photograph, “Octopus’s Garden”
Phyllis Meredith, photograph
Pamela Chatterton Purdy, artist, a postcard collaboration with Jessica Purdy
Jessica Purdy, cover art, “Learning the Names”
Shadowbox by Carand Burnet, Photo by Daniel J. Clapp
Fabrice Poussin, photo. STARLAND book cover design by Michael McInnis, Nixes Mate Books
Jessica Purdy and Susan Schwake, poetry and art collaboration

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